GEZA VON HABSBURG: “Of the jewelry, 95 percent was destroyed by the Bolsheviks. Of the silver, I would say 95 percent was melted down by the Bolsheviks. They were in dire need of money after the revolution.”
BOB DOUGHTY: What they did not destroy, they sold.
ALEX NYERGES: “These works started coming out of Russia in the 1920s and the 1930s, and there was a great, great mania for collecting Faberge starting in the 1930s in this country. And there were a couple of very key collectors.”
BOB DOUGHTY: Lillian Pratt was one of them. When she died in 1947, she left more than 150 of her Faberge pieces to the Virginia Museum in Richmond. Today it has the largest collection of Faberge outside of Russia.
As for Faberge, he fled Russia during the revolution. He died in Switzerland two years later, but his works of art live on. I’m Bob Doughty.
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MARIO RITTER:
This program was written by June Simms. Our announcers were Barbara Klein, Faith Lapidus and Bob Doughty. I’m Mario Ritter. You can watch video versions of these stories on our website, voaspecialenglish.com.
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2013-11-25
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